shielded cables & IC's or not?

I have an ES/SS system similar to yours. Shielded cables, IMO. You do not want any RFI mixed in with the signal. It will result in a glassy sound if you use unshielded cables.

On the contrary, shielding can actually pick up RFI and EMI eminating from nearby power cords, etc, and introduce it into the signal path resulting in unfavorable sound characteristics that I have previously mentioned. You may want to do a trial of both a shielded and an unshielded cable under the conditions that I previously mentioned. I have tube monoblocks with a dual mono designed tube preamp. I have tried shielded, partially shielded and unshielded ICs in my low powered tube system and IMHO, the unshielded variety was MUCH better sounding. The partially shielded variety was much better than my 100% shielded cable. I have a refined system and could easily hear the differences! Best thing to do is try for yourself. Good luck

I recently switched from Phoenix Gold interconnecs (shielded, twisted multistranded design & cooked for a week on a Mobie) to Tice Audio (solid core, unshielded, TPT treated). Simply no comparison...so much music, smoothness of sound and openness!

I still don't know whether a cartridge's signal to the phono preamp should be shielded...

Of course, you should try both. The fact that you live in a large city may(?) make "shielded" a better option. Do you live in a private house or a multi-dwelling? When I lived in apartments in New York City, shielded cables always seemed to work better.

I agree that shielding tends to add unwanted side effects to audio cables. Of course, this is more noticable with some more than others..depending on the cable itself.

Unless you have gobs of wires going here and there and running parallel to each other (always cross your cables as close to 90 degrees as possible where they HAVE to meet), have cable TV hooked up in your system (a HUGE source of RFI and other nasties), or live near radio towers and the like, MOST systems are not exposed to enough interference to warrant the necessity of shielding.

Shielding veils the last bits of detail, emotion, and clarity of the sound. I make my own cables and have eperimented by making identical cables with the exception of shielding and there is an obvious difference even from the starting block. -Jason